


i can't blame them, i'll just maim them on my throne

by itsyourboi_aurus



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-27 10:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15683787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsyourboi_aurus/pseuds/itsyourboi_aurus





	1. r̷͔͊͑ẽ̴̩͂̋d̴̨̦̤̈͊

**Author's Note:**

  * For [all_things_fandom_and_stuff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_things_fandom_and_stuff/gifts).



“Keith, what’s been up with you lately?” Lance? Was that Lance? He thought it was.

“Nothing,” Keith answered, voice sounding unusually detached. Except it wasn’t Keith that said that. It sounded like him, and it definitely came out of his mouth, but.. It. Wasn’t. Him.

The red paladin's mind went foggy again, like it did almost every time he nearly became aware.

Lance huffed. “See? That’s what I mean! You sound so.. so dead! I'd even take annoyed or angry Keith over this.. this blank Keith! You're standing right there, right in front of me, but you aren't acting like Keith.”

So it's performance wasn’t good enough? Did that mean the others were catching on as well? That was no good- it hadn’t had time to play with them yet! It still had so much it could do within the red paladin. There was so much anger, so much hatred, so much negative emotion- all buried so deep within that it was sure even the red paladin didn’t know it was there. It decided to release some of that negativity with it's next statement. From what it had gathered from it's hosts memories, the red paladin had always been a bit aggressive.

“I told you, Lance, it's nothing!” Keith snapped. Lance flinched backward at the pure anger the shorter boy was practically emanating like an aura.

“Fine, you're angry, I get it. I'll leave you alone,” and with that, the blue paladin was gone. It forced the red paladin's eyes to trail his movement, forced the red paladin to scoff quietly. With that gone, it could finally focus on destroying it's host. Despite the negative emotions, the red paladin was mentally strong. It would be hard to break him, but that made it all the more fun.

It started with toying with his memories- altering them to make them painful. It dragged out negative emotions, pulled at the red paladin's insecurities, grasped at any hint of negativity it could and tugged. It allowed the red paladin back into his mind, back into his body- back into control.

And then it forced it's host to remember.

At first, Keith didn’t seem all that bothered. He couldn’t remember snapping at Lance, couldn’t remember when he growled at Pidge just the previous day, couldn't remember when he'd yelled at Hunk, or when he'd nearly skewered Shiro while training. Something wouldn’t let him- it wouldn’t let him.

But he could remember other things. Times he was with the paladins. They didn’t seem to hold any significance, he just remembered.

Then, several memories later, Keith started questioning. Had the other paladins always seemed to bothered when they spoke to him? Sounded so annoyed? They had to of, right? He couldn’t see why they would just start out of the blue.

It continued playing altered memories. Memories of when he was younger- with Shiro at the Garrison. With his dad. Memories of time he'd spent with Adam after Shiro left for Kerberos and ‘died.’

Had they always been that brittle? That callous? How did he not notice? He frowned, swinging at a training bot. His body moved on autopilot while these memories played.

They continued playing. A varga or so passed. Mealtime rolled around. He ended the training program, the memories pausing long enough for him to make his way to the kitchen and get food. The moment he was seated, the memories continued.

The annoyance and the anger and the sadness that it had forced into the memories was slowly getting the red paladin. His self esteem hadn’t been particularly high in the first place, so seeing all of the negative emotions talking to or interacting with him seemed to enact hurt. It dragged that low bar down even further.

Engrossed entirely in the memories, Keith didn’t notice the way the other paladins watched him. They pretended they weren’t watching. But it caught the glances they kept sending the red paladin through said paladin's eyes.

Keith was descending further and further into his mind. It continued playing them long after the paladins had all left the table, long after it piloted Keith's body back to his room. This was all going just to plan.

It coaxed Keith into a cage and then slammed the door shut.

It finally had full control over the red paladin. There was only so much it could do with Keith still having almost full control. It knew that. And that's why it had needed to play it's cards carefully and trap Keith within his own mind. Now he'd be forced to watch himself from inside. He'd be forced to watch it destroy the small life he'd started building for himself with the other paladins, Allura, and Coran. Just as it had made Keith relive his memories, it would make the red paladin watch it fracture the team using his body and his voice, would make him watch as it broke the only people Keith considered family. And after that?

It would kill them.

And there was absolutely nothing Keith could do to stop it.


	2. g̶̞̅r̶̡͎̆̌e̴͓̘͓͊̓è̶̥n̶̠̳͍̏̆

The green paladin was first, it decided. The red paladin had quite the friendship with her- and from memories it's host had, the others were all protective of her. She was the best candidate as it's first victim.

It cornered her the following day, just after dinner.

“We should.. hang out. I realize I've been kinda.. I realize I've been kind of a jerk the past few days and I wanted to make it up to you,” it spoke, letting out about as much emotion as he'd seen Keith let out when he felt sorry for things. It had spent the night wide awake, looking through memories until it was sure it had mastered his mannerisms.

Pidge looked at him skeptically- a concerned frown taking its place moments later. “Are you.. sure you're okay? You look horrible, honestly.”

It frowned as well. It hadn’t taken into account appearance changes due to the lack of sleep the body had received the previous night. It couldn’t allow the body to rest, that would give Keith an opportunity to escape.

It waved it off. “I'm fine. I just had some trouble sleeping last night.”

Pidge didn't seem to buy it too well, but nodded slowly. “Fine, we can hang out. We can work on the lions again- like last time,” her answer was quick and she gave very little time to react before turning around and striding off.

It followed in silence, arms crossed over it's chest. This was going well so far. They would be isolated in the lions hangars, away from the others. Plenty enough time for it to anger her and then kill her. It could easily try to blame it on something else- after all, Keith wouldn’t try to murder his teammate without reason. He might be aggressive, but he wasn’t like that.

Pidge led them into the Green Lion's hangar, sitting down at a desk and typing on it quickly. They'd be getting right to work then.

It leaned lightly against the desk, looking over at the green paladin. She didn’t appear to be paying it any attention. It sighed loudly.

“I, uh.. I wanted to say sorry about your brother and dad,” it started. Pidge sent it a look, eyebrow raised. “That we haven’t found them. I know what it's like to not have a family and all-"

Pidge cut it off, “just, drop it, okay? I don’t want to talk about it.” Her statement was sharp and annoyed.

“I just want you to know that I'm here for you. If you ever want to talk, I mean.” It continued.

“Keith, I said drop it! I don't want to talk about them right now. You wanted to help me with Green in order to apologize for being a jerk. You aren't doing a very good job at apologizing,” Pidge was practically seething already.

So her family was a sore subject then?

“But I apologized for it,” it pointed out, blinking innocently.

“You really don’t get it, do you!? There's a difference between our families. Yours is *dead,* and mine is still alive! There's no getting your family back. But mine? I'll find them, with or without Voltron's help!” Pidge snapped, voice a near snarl.

It blinked again, faking a look of shock.

The green paladin seemed to register what she'd said. Her eyes widened, hands going up and a surrender motion. “Keith, I didn’t mean it like that. I'm just… angry, okay? Who knows what dad and Matt are out there doing? I really didn’t mean to take my anger out on you.”

She watched Keith's eyes darken, a frightening glint shining in the purple irises. “K-Keith?”

She watched him stand, shoulders hunched and hair falling in his face, before his hand shot out. He gripped her around the throat, lifting her into the air. She choked, fingers scrambling limply at the hand gripping her neck. It was getting harder and harder to breath.

“K-Keith, what th-the hell are y-you doing?” Pidge wheezed, trying to dig her nails into it's hand.

“Oh, you think I'm Keith. How precious.” It paused, grinning widely at the green paladin's look of shock and utter confusion.

She thumped to the floor when it dropped her, knees clacking loudly. The pain jarred her entire body and she willed one of the other paladin's to come in to help her.

“Who are you then?” Pidge asked, voice light and breathy as she tried to catch her lost breath. Her hands were clenched, pressed against her thighs in a desperate attempt to get her world to stop spinning.

“I have no name, though I am what you earthlings would call a ‘parasite.’” It answered, staring down at her with a malicious grin.

As soon as she was able to stand without passing out, she was on her feet, glaring at Keith- at the parasite. “What have you done with Keith!?”

“He’s still here. He's watching this all go down. It's like a.. like a movie!” It tapped the side of it's head.

“Let him go, you monster!” Pidge hissed, eyes narrowed.

“But why should I do that? His body and mind it the perfect host. He has so much hatred within him, so much anger. So much insecurity.” The parasite practically purred.

The green paladin remained silent, glare trained on Keith. They weren't extremely close, not like Keith and Shiro were, but she considered the other paladin her friend- her brother, even. And she might not be the best at making friends, but she was certain Keith would rather die than let this thing possess him.

She summoned her bayard, gripping it in shaking hands. She went to turn on her heel, to go retrieve the other paladins when-

“I'll let you talk to him for a dobash, if you wish,” it interrupted. It was a dangerous thing, handing control over his voice back to Keith, if only for a moment, but it was willing to allow it if it would crush the little green paladin that much more.

“Fine. Let me talk to him.” She growled.

It shrugged, loosening it's hold on Keith's voice. Relinquishing control of it to him. He was so weak from it draining his energy that it should be easy enough to take control back.

“P-Pidge!” Keith choked out, his voice sounding desperate despite his body's stoic, emotionless appearance. “You- You have to kill me. It's taken over and I can't let it hurt you. _I_ can't hurt you.”

Pidge almost let out a sob, just barely holding it in. “What is it doing to you? Maybe there's some way to destroy it without killing you?” 

She swore she could see a hint of sadness flash in those blank eyes, but it had to have been her imagination.

“Pidge, listen to me. You have to kill me. There's no way to get it out- it's got me locked up right in my mind and it's draining me. You'd be doing me- and all of us- a favor by killing me,” Keith insisted. It was just then that Pidge realized how tired the red paladin sounded. He sounded exhausted.

“Pidge, it wants to kill you. It wants to kill all of you! Hunk, Lance, Allura, Coran, Shiro..! It wants you all dead. And then it'll continue killing after you’re all dead. Pidge, you've been one of my best friends, and I thank you for that. It's been an honor to fight beside you a-and.. it's been an honor. But you've got do this Pidge. Please,” he paused, “and.. and Pidge, I love y-"

Keith was cut off by the parasite.

“I wasn’t done talking to him!” The green paladin had tears welling in her eyes. “I didn’t get to tell him that I loved him too! That he was like a brother to me!” Her eyes, despite the tears, were blazing.

“That’s too bad.. I said you had a dobash- I gave you a dobash.” It shrugged.

Pidge sniffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She knew what she had to do.

The green paladin spun around, racing for the door, which was wide open. She had to get the other paladins, had to make them see this.

But she would never get a chance.

Pain spiked in her stomach. She coughed, catching a flash of red. Warmth dribbled down from the corner of her mouth. It slid down her chin, dangling for a moment, before falling to the ground with a soft tink!

Her gaze drifted down, hands traveling to grab at her stomach. The red bayard- shaped into Keith's sword- was protruding through her stomach from the back.

“I'm sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” the parasite spoke casually.

It tilted the sword slightly, giving a tug, and Pidge's body slipped off the blade, hitting the ground with a muffled thump.

“I truly am sorry about that. Keith was rather fond of you, you know.”

The green paladin- Pidge- coughed again, drawing in a sharp, gasping breath.

Her eyes fluttered shut.

“I-I lo-love you t-too, Keith,” she choked out.

Her body went limp.

Her bayard returned to it’s original state.

Her heart stopped.

“Well, that was much easier than I had thought it would be,” the parasite remarked. “I wonder who we shall go after next, red paladin.”

Inside his mind, locked in his cage, Keith broke- he let out a harsh sob, crying for the first time since he'd been told Shiro was dead by the Garrison.


	3. g̶̞̅r̶̡͎̆̌e̴͓̘͓͊̓è̶̥n̶̠̳͍̏̆

The parasite took the time to clean up the hangar and snag a blanket from the castle storage room. Waiting long enough for the blood flow to slow, it propped Pidge up in her chair and tossed the blanket around her shoulders, spinning the chair about so that she was facing the desk. It then grabbed one of the many books the green paladin had sitting near her desk and opened it to a random page, setting it open on the desk and leaning Pidge against over it- arranging her arms to make it look like she had merely fallen asleep over the book while reading.

“That should do it, yes? It’s from your memories that I know how to do these things- one of the memories you have of the green paladin slumped over her desk after having fallen asleep while reading,” the parasite taunted Keith, picking up Pidge's discarded bayard and swiping off a bit of blood with it's shirt. It almost grinned at the soft sniffle it drew out of the red paladin.

It tucked the bayard into it's jacket, so as to hide it from sight just in case it ran into another castle occupant on the way back to Keith's- now it's room- and left the Green Lion's hangar at a brisk pace. The walk went off without a hitch- the entire castle seemed to be asleep or otherwise occupied and not roaming the halls.

“This shall be good,” it remarked as it removed Pidge's bayard from it's jacket, opening the closet and setting it on an empty shelf. “They have no reason to suspect me- or shall I say, you- since no one saw us talk to the green paladin and no one saw us on our walk to the hangar, or our walks back.”

Keith had gone silent- no quiet sniffles anymore. 

“I wonder how long it will take for one of the other paladins to notice. Whoever notices first will be our next victim!” It clapped it's hands together softly, moving to settle stiffly on the bed.

It would spend the entire night awake once more, forcing the red paladin to relive the memory of killing Pidge.

The next morning couldn’t come fast enough for Keith or the parasite- but for entirely different reasons. But when it finally did come, and breakfast rolled around, the parasite sat up and left the red paladin's room.

It was one of the first in the kitchen, sitting idly in it's chair while Hunk cooked and Shiro and Allura talked. Coran strolled in not much later, with Lance carrying up the rear. The yellow paladin finished with breakfast not long after Lance arrived, setting the meal on the table and taking his seat.

The absence of Pidge didn’t go unnoticed, and as soon as breakfast was over, Hunk stood up. “I'm gonna go.. find Pidge. She probably fell asleep while working on Green again or something.”

The parasite stood too. “I'll come with,” it piped up, following after Hunk.

The pair moved in silence toward the Green Lion's hangar, the parasite hanging back toward the door and leaning against the wall while Hunk approached Pidge.

“Hey, Pidge. It's breakfast time,” Hunk stated, pausing beside the girl. Her glasses were askew on her face- at least they looked like they were- and her arms were pulled up, face buried in her arms.

“Pidge, come on, it’s time to get up.” The yellow paladin was growing nervous, it could tell. It had gathered that the green paladin was a relatively light sleeper from Keith's memories, meaning that Hunk's call not waking her first time would be considered odd.

“Pidge,” Hunk started again, placing a hand on her shoulder, only to freeze.

Pidge was freezing cold.

His eyes widened and he leaned forward to spin her chair around. Her glasses slid off her face and, the moment her support on the desk was taken, her body slipped out of the chair, hitting the ground with a thump. The blanket didn’t come with, exposing the gaping wound in her back.

Hunk gagged, spinning around and covering his mouth, his face paling. The parasite forced it's eyes to widen, it's body to jolt forward with a small noise.

The yellow paladin gagged again, dropping to his knees and retching.

“Hunk, what's wrong? What happened to Pidge?” It asked, faking concern. It stopped beside the other boy and gazed upon the green paladin's body once again. It almost struggled to keep the grin off of it's face.

“Oh my god..” The parasite mumbled, turning around and placing a hand on Hunk's shoulder. “I'll.. I'll go get the others.”

It trailed out of the room at a jog, allowing itself a small smile before schooling it's face into one of horror and mild fear. It had two other paladins, a princess, and a royal advisor to find.

Finding the other four hadn’t been hard- Shiro was in the training room, Lance was in the lounge area, and Allura and Coran were both in the control room. It let the others back to the Green Lion's hangar, ignoring their questions and choosing to remain silent.

It appeared as though Hunk had thrown up once more after it had left and was facing away from Pidge's body. It was quite clear that, of all the paladins, Hunk and Pidge were some of the closest. The thought of what her death must be doing to the yellow paladin had the parasite shoving down another grin.

“What in the-" Shiro stopped dead in his tracks, then rushed over. Lance looked to be frozen, eyes blown wide. Allura was gaping, tears gathering in her eyes and a hand covered her mouth not moments later. Coran was frowning deeply, eyes swimming with sadness before following Shiro over.

“Number Three, why don’t you get Number Two out of here?” Coran suggested, helping the yellow paladin to his feet, just in time for the blue paladin to snap out of his stupor. From what the parasite remember, Pidge and Lance were quite close too.

“Uh.. y- yeah. C-Come on, Hunk..” Lance and Hunk made their way out of the Green Lion's hangar, both seeming too shocked and upset to really say much more.

“Allura, you can leave too if you want.” The black paladin was looking back at the princess from where he was inspecting Pidge's body. He was frowning, gaze sad but determined at the same time.

“I.. think I'll do that. I will be in the control room if you need me.” With a small, sad look back at Pidge, Allura slipped out of the room.

Coran had joined Shiro in looking over Pidge's body, but chanced a look back at Keith.

“Why don’t you get out of here too, my boy? It appears that you might be in shock. Hunk and Lance might enjoy your company,” the Altean suggested. The parasite realized it's face had gone blank.

It blinked, looking as if it was going to protest, before giving a small nod. “Y-Yeah.. I'll.. I'll be on the training deck if you need me." It answered, turning around and leaving the hangar.

The parasite remained blank and quiet the entire way to the training deck. A small laugh slipped out as soon as the door slid shut behind it.

“You know what this means, red paladin? Hunk, the yellow paladin, is next!”


	4. ỷ̶̡̲͂̔e̴̮̳͉͝l̵̯̾͘l̴͙̈́͒̈ŏ̸̺̤̯ẁ̸̮̖̀̕ͅ

Keith slammed his hand against the bars of his cage. “I sat back and was forced to let you kill Pidge. I won't let you do the same to Hunk.” He drew his fist back again but the moment his hand touched the bars, he was thrown into a fit of agony.

“Silly child,” the parasite tutted. “You are aware that you are trapped within your own mind? Any damage you do to your cell is just injuring yourself and your body. Did you really expect punching a cell inside your mind would have no negative effects on you?”

Keith growled, eyes flooding with a fiery determination and he slammed his hand against the bars again. A jarring pain rattled through him and he clutched at his head, stumbling backward.

“Did you not hear what I said?” The parasite huffed.

“Oh, I did. But.. If you’re in my mind, surely this must hurt you too?” The ‘I'm willing to die to make sure none of my friends die like Pidge did,’ went unsaid, but it almost seemed to sense it.

“Trying to play the hero again?” The parasite seemed to roll his eyes. “It seems like that’s all you ever want to do. Even if it means sacrificing your friends, you're willing to do it just to get attention.” It paused. “My name is Keith, I was orphaned as a child and the only family I had after that was killed by my own hands when I was possessed,” it mocked.

Keith growled again. “I don’t want attention from your or anyone. You've already beaten me- why won't you leave my friends alone?”

“Where would the fun in that be?” It practically purred. “Now, we have a yellow paladin to go kill, yes? I've come up with a brilliant plan.”

The red paladin hit the bars again, but his strike seemed.. weaker, somehow. He was rattled with another bolt of pain- burning pain, this time.

“You can try to hurt me all you want. In the end, you'll be the one that goes down first,” the parasite taunted.

Keith continued to strike the bars. Agony continued to rush through him like a hurricane- violent and unforgiving. He felt like he was being torn to shreds. But he couldn’t give up. He couldn’t let Hunk suffer the same thing Pidge did. He couldn’t let himself suffer the same way he did with Pidge. He couldn’t let the other paladins, Allura, and Coran suffer the way they did when they discovered Pidge. But the more he attacked his prison, the more tired he became. The harsher the pain got.

Keith found himself giving up. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to. He didn't wantto, he didn'twantto, hedidn’twantto, hedidn’twantto, hedidn’twantto! But he had no choice. His body- at least, whatever part of him was serving as his body while he was trapped in his mind, gave in. It stopped listening to him. He dropped to the floor of his cage. He was stuck.

As it turns out, the other castle-goers were no closer to finding out who had killed Pidge than they were when dinner had rolled around the previous day. They had determined that the killing blow had been the gaping wound in her stomach- that much was certain. But they had no idea who had done it. The parasite was just too good at faking. They'd questioned it, of course. Keith was the one who possessed a sword. But it didn’t take long for them to decide that it was innocent- Keith wouldn’t kill Pidge, after all.

It had waited until the others had gone back to their respective rooms to sneak into the kitchen. In the dark, it made cookies. It had searched Keith's earliest memories and recalled seeing his father bake cookies. The red paladin's father hadn’t been around too much and had died when he was young, but Keith had one clear memory of his father making cookies. It was one of his favorites, after all. It also used the knowledge Keith had gained from watching Hunk cook and bake in the castle kitchen. It didn’t take too long at all. It even added a secret ingredient- poison.

With that, it wait for them to cool and went to grab Hunk. 

Hunk had come along fairly easily- he hadn’t put up a fight and had merely agreed to try the cookies it had made. So the pair stood in the kitchen, side-by-side, with a cookie in Hunk's hand.

“What did you say these cookies were again?” The yellow paladin asked.

“They’re based around my dad's recipe. And I use the word based lightly. The ingredients are things I've seen you use in the kitchen, so they should be fine,” it explained. “The cookies are probably one of the best things my dad made for me. They’re to _die_ for.”

“Okay..” Hunk trailed off, taking a bite of one of the cookies. He chewed slowly, then swallowed. “Hey, these are pretty good, actually.” He took another bite- swallowed again. He paused.

And then coughed.

The poison was starting to affect him now. The parasite was almost giddy and had to force the smile down.

Keith struck the bars of his prison weakly once. It merely brushed it off. The red paladin's earlier hits had been somewhat painful, but the more he hit the cage, the weaker he got and the less the strikes hurt.

“Are you alright?” It asked, voice filled with false concern.

Hunk dropped the cookie, taking a step back and choking again. His hands grasped his throat and he continued back until he hit the wall, sliding down it at a snail's pace.

“Hunk?” It repeated, starting toward him.

The yellow paladin looked up at it helplessly, eyes wide in a mixture of pain and terror.

It couldn’t keep the grin off it's face.

“Ke-Keith?” Hunk choked out.

“How cute. You think I'm actually Keith.” It smirked, grabbing one of the various sharp, Altean kitchen tools set on the counters. The parasite stalked toward Hunk, pace leisurely and body relaxed. It swung the tool around a bit until it came to stand in front of Hunk.

“I'm sorry to disappoint you, yellow paladin,” it paused, drawing it's arm back, “but I'm not your precious red paladin.” It swung it's arm forward, embedding the sharp end of the tool in Hunk's shoulder.

The yellow paladin let out a choked shout, the sound coming out incredibly short and muffled even further by it's hand.

“And I figure you should know that I killed the green paladin. Just like I'm killing you, actually! Those cookies were filled with a space poison I found sitting around the castle. They shouldn’t leave deadly things just lying around, really,” it remarked, smirking down at Hunk.

It spun on it's heel, returning to the counter for another tool. It went over it's selection for a moment, letting out a low hum, before picking up another sharp tool.

“And that poison had left you almost entirely immobile. The effects hit fast, but it takes a while to kill you. We'll have to see what kills you first- the poison or the blood loss.” The parasite's grin widened, driving the tool it held in it's hand into Hunk's other shoulder.

Another muffled shout escaped the yellow paladin.

Blood was forming small rivers from his shoulders and down his arms and sides, dribbling onto the floor slowly.

“I'm kind of hoping it's the poison. The green paladin died from a stab wound- the yellow paladin dying from stab wounds would just be repetitive,” the parasite droned on, already back at the counter.

It snagged two identical tools off of the counter, turning back toward Hunk. It couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

“I would offer to let you talk to the red paladin, but I don’t think you're capable of talking at the moment. I'll just let him talk to you!” The parasite smirked.

Keith held in a sob when he looked at Hunk. “Hunk, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't.. I didn’t mean for this to happen-”

“Keith.”

“Hunk?” Keith stared at the yellow paladin. He was slumped against the wall, smiling as warmly as a dying person could. His eyes were filled with tears that didn't take any longer to start spilling down his face.

“I- I forgive y-you,” Hunk forced out, choking a few times afterward. Once, twice, three times. And then his stomach emptied onto the floor beside him.

“Hunk, I love you like a friend and.. and like a brother.” Keith continued before being tugged back, shoved back into his cage. The door was slammed shut. The parasite let out a chilling laugh.

“Times up. Now wasn’t that heartwarming?” It grinned, crouching between Hunk's legs. It pulled it's arms back- both this time- then drove them forward. The kitchen tools embedded themselves into the yellow paladin's thighs.

Hunk let out a choked gasp that trailed into a sob- it cut itself off with a cough and another gasp.

The parasite stepped back to admire it's work. The yellow paladin was bleeding, a dark puddle forming below him. It mixed with the contents of his stomach, creating a sick pool beside him. Clutched in the yellow paladin's hand was the yellow bayard.

It tugged the yellow bayard free of Hunk's hand. He didn’t even put up a fight to keep it.

The parasite smirked again, wiping the bayard off with the end of it's shirt and then tucked it into it's jacket.

Hunk let out one final gasp, the went silent, body slumping even further into the wall.

His eyes fluttered shut.

His breathing froze.

His heart stopped.

“These friends of yours are surprisingly easy to kill, red paladin,” the parasite snorted. “You would think they would be harder to kill. They are the ‘defenders of the universe’ after all. I already know who my next target is too!” It grinned.

Inside his mind, Keith broke down for the second time in forever.


End file.
